Hanging baskets of Tumbling Tom Tomatoes and red, white and blue petunias will be among the items for sale when the annual plant sale at the Upshur County Library starts Thursday. A new item this year will be Purple Cherokee, an heirloom tomato.

One-gallon plantings of Beefmaster tomatoes which disappeared quickly last year are among the hundreds of plants from the Randy Simmons Plant Farm on Ocelot Road. Again this year, Simmons has put together some unique combinations for the Friends. This time he has grouped dill, basil, cilantro, rosemary and sage in a single pot for the homeowner who wants to grow a variety of herbs in limited space.

Unfortunately for some of the fans of the sale, there will be no ferns this year. Instead there will be potted sweet potatoes and verbena, nasturtium baskets, Salvia called May Night, a deep purple; cedar salvia, and Leucantemum purple.

For those who have delayed planting tomatoes or pepper (or who lost theirs in last week’s freeze), the Friends will have eight varieties of tomatoes: Early Girl, Celebrity, Better Boy, Roma, Beefsteak, Sweet 100, Homestead, and Red Cherry, and eight of peppers: Sweet Bell, Poblano, Habanero, Anaheim, Hot Banana, TAM Jalapeno, Jalapeno and Cayenne.

Most of the plants will be in six packs except for the herbs, hanging baskets and gallon pots of Beefmaster tomatoes which are already blooming.